Ramadan poetry

In honor of Ramadan, we’ve recently posted a series of poems, podcasts, and features celebrating Muslim faith and Islamic culture in our features section. The very origins of Ramadan, which falls during the ninth month of the lunar calendar, are rooted in verse: Muslims believe it is the month in which the first verses of the Koran were revealed to the Prophet Mohammed. While these poems and features don’t go into the basics of the holiday—that during the month, observant Muslims abstain from food and drink from sunup to sundown—they touch on the facts of daily life for many Muslims this month. Read the poems by Mahmoud Darwish, Saadi Youssef, June Jordan, Thomas Merton and more here.